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Sen. Loren Legarda pressed over the weekend for the
crafting of contingency measures to cushion the impact of rising
food and oil process to the local economy.
Legarda, the chairman of the
Senate Committee on Economic Affairs, said the present situation
could worsen with the announcement that oil companies will increase
their prices by P1.50 per liter each week, and that it may reach P65
a liter soon.
“The rising prices of oil and
the concomitant increase in the prices of basic commodities
necessitate action by the government in order to minimize the
country’s welfare losses,” she added.
She cited the warning of former
Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, now an economics professor at the
University of the Philippines, that because of the increasing prices
of oil, Filipinos will be left with a tighter budget for food,
thereby decreasing their buying capacity.
“Diokno said that the rippling
effect of the ‘deadly combination’ of food and oil will bring
down the Philippine economy further and could cause more
unemployment and hunger,” she said.
The National Statistical
Coordinating Board issued a statement on May 29 that the first
quarter 2008 gross domestic product (GDP) slackened to 5.2 percent,
from its previous year’s performance of 7 percent.
The high oil prices and reduced
global demand for some Philippine export products have forced Malacañang’s
economic team to reduce the target for growth for this year.
Legarda also noted a warning in
an economic report released by the Senate Economic Planning Office
in February 2008, that the steep rise in oil prices was expected to
result in higher cost of utilities, food and other commodities,
curbing consumption spending.
--Efren L. Danao
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